Light the fuse to launch a CI spectacular

Oliver Cromwell was so reviled after his death in 1658 that his corpse was dug up and subjected to that most repulsive and futile of indignities, the 'posthumous execution'. In other words, the seething masses hated the poor guy so much they resolved to kill him twice. Despite the fear and loathing that Cromwell provoked among the common people, modern manufacturing has good reason to be grateful to the Lord Protector because it was he who came up with the definitive kaizen quote – "He who stops being better stops being good". This phrase perfectly encapsulates a key principle of kaizen, namely, that good enough is not good enough. Kaizen – aka continuous improvement (CI) – systematically seeks a never-ending series of incremental changes in products, services or processes to raise efficiency and quality, and reduce cost and waste. Process improvements typically focus on three objectives – reduced lead-times, a boost in quality, and/or increased productivity (and, therefore, profit). CI can inoculate a company against the complacency that might otherwise infect and eventually kill it. However, the treatment will be ineffective unless you prescribe the correct dose of the right medicine based on a proper diagnosis. Like therapeutic drugs, CI can have a powerful initial impact, but, over time, the beneficial effects can diminish or even wear off completely. Indeed, Phil Tugwell, associate director at MCP Consulting and Training, believes it is almost inevitable that enthusiasm for CI programmes will dwindle. "Part of the reason they nearly always fail is because the senior leadership, either at group or site level, have a short attention span and they expect improvements in three or six months. Actually, with the vast majority of these projects, you are talking two to five years." He adds that people look for big, tangible returns on investment really quickly. "In reality, it often takes 12 to 18 months for the benefits even to start coming through." Mark Bown, senior advisor – OE at Cummins, agrees that it's all too common for CI programme fervour to fade: "Early enthusiasm is often gained by creating a forum for different levels to discuss their challenges and make plans to overcome them. However, once this period passes, the actions of change become the norm. At this point, the leadership team takes a step back which can be perceived by employees as a lack of interest. The leadership then delegates to people who often have another job to do." This demotivates hard-pressed employees whose engagement in the CI process can be further eroded as the results appear to tail off. Bown again: "In the early days, the low hanging fruit often yields a bountiful harvest, but once those issues are cleared away the next challenges are harder to identify and have less payback." For Claudius Consulting's Gavin Milne, companies sometimes make too light of the emotional responses people experience as they face change which can hamper successful CI deployment: "Often, I have found that the programme will start with great gusto, but maybe we ignore some of the softer elements that are key to a successful implementation. "For example, do we think about managing transitions rather than just managing change?" He points out: "We get excited about the tools and techniques, but they are only as good as the way we communicate and manage the people and the process." Graham Swann, vice president of Milliken European Airbag Products, believes commitment to CI will diminish if it's not kept fresh: "It's up to the management team to ensure that the process is changing and adapting all the time. The purpose of any kaizen is the next kaizen. The journey never ends because the more you know the more you can see opportunities for improvement." Lots of organisations haven't got to the sustainable phase But beware, says MCP's Tugwell: "If you are going to do it, try your best to get it right first time. If your programme dips, recovering it is hard. There are lots of organisations that attempt to do 5S and have done 3S 25 times; they've never got to the sustainable phase." Getting it right first time means baselining or gap analysis (comparing actual and potential performance), and then developing a plan to take you to where you want to be. That might be a three-year programme with a detailed plan of the first year. However, one aspect of CI planning that many companies forget is sequencing. A successful programme will follow a specific series of actions executed in the right order. Tugwell again: "You can't do the complex stuff if you're not doing the simple stuff. For example, you wouldn't look at improving the minor stops on the line, or the process capability of the equipment, or even operator asset care and having the operators doing complex maintenance activities if you didn't have basic 5S and standard operating procedures in place… The Six Sigma stuff is down for the last half a per cent." Peter Austin, a director at consultant Suiko, believes effectively implemented CI results in a fundamental change in attitudes, values and behaviour: "A CI programme should never run out of steam because there should be an absolutely compelling reason why you're doing it and there should be a very robust review process to ensure that you're on track all the time... "In our language it's a culture change and that's all about engaging the whole of the workforce to improve rather than just giving an operator a job to do. That improvement culture does take time to develop, but it should happen eventually." However, if, despite your best efforts, your CI programme does start to fizzle out, what can you do to reignite it? Cummins' Bown believes the secret lies in honesty and effort: "If you are the leader, get everyone together, admit your lack of engagement may have created the wrong perception, and reiterate how important the programme is. Remember that one idea that saves £1 million is luck whereas a million ideas saving £1 each is CI." Leadership must be engaged and supportive To prevent cynicism from creeping in, Bown recommends continuing to drive the initiative, acknowledging successes, encouraging people who fail to try something else and recognising them for trying: "Make sure all levels of leadership are engaged and supportive; you don't need any 'terrorists' in your team. And be visible – go down to the place where work happens and take an interest. Make sure you check that the changes stick." For Milliken's Swann, the trick is to ensure that the CI process evolves: "One of the ways we do it is to continually challenge the way we do things. An example of this is our daily meeting which is a stand-up meeting around an interactive set of boards known as the 'glass wall'. "We challenge the relevance of information and continually ask if other items should be included. If the system fails catastrophically then it is sometimes a case of going back to basics and reinforcing the message and the process. This can involve refresher training or resetting key performance indicators to drive behaviour." Swann advises that you "walk the talk" to head off potential cynicism: "Managers have to understand that their behaviour drives the behaviour of our associates [employees] so if a manager doesn't do the right thing then why should a production associate? All activity has to be meaningful and the benefits of it have to be known and visualised. If cynicism comes from 'negative' individuals then they have to be handled through normal management processes." Mike Sweeney, emeritus professor at Cranfield School of Management, believes a failing CI programme is often associated with the departure of the person leading it. He says: "His or her individual knowledge and enthusiasm are the driving forces that trigger it to start with. You find that, sometimes, the people inside the organisation lose their incentive to come forward with ideas either because the 'champion' moves on, or is promoted into another position and somebody comes in who has not got the same charisma and enthusiasm." As a result, the CI initiative loses momentum and may need to be jumpstarted. But not without a clear objective, says Sweeney: "There needs to be a change imperative – an issue that everybody knows about that CI can rectify." The new CI programme will also require a new champion to drive it forward, someone with the energy and passion to take up the battle and inspire people to bigger and better things. A dozen tips to improve the likelihood of CI success Over the years there have been many valiant attempts to make continuous improvement and lean manufacturing easier to understand. Some CI champions have tried numbers – 3P, 4M, 5S, Six Sigma, seven wastes, eight disciplines, and so on. Others rely on Japanese expressions – chaku chaku, gemba, hanedashi, hansei, heijunka, hoshin kanri, jidoka, kanban, muda, nagara, poka-yoke, shojinka, yokoten, etc. A third presentational device is the acronym – CFM, CMRP, JIT, MES, PDCA, SBS, SCM, TPM, TPS, VOC, VSA, and so forth. These efforts to simplify a complex subject, while laudable, can serve only to make it more obscure. However, there are 12 basic rules that should significantly boost your chances of CI success: 1 Accept that applying a CI initiative will probably disrupt your existing processes, so prepare your employees for the changes heading their way. 2 Involve your team in the implementation – getting people on board is the most important element in a CI programme. Without this, you will fail to change the culture and the changes that are made will have no chance to bed in. 3 Tailor the needs of the programme to your specific circumstances – a one-size-fits-all approach simply won't work. 4 Don't implement big change fast unless you are fighting for survival. Total business process re-engineering is risky; gradual improvement gives you greater control. 5 Recognise that some initiatives will fail. Adopt the Fred Astaire principle: Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again. 6 Be patient; change won't happen overnight. Tugwell says: "Any programme like this is about behaviour change, it is about putting disciplines into the organisation, and it is about getting that way of thinking into the DNA of the business so that it becomes habitual. That takes 18 months to three years." 7 Standardise your practices to make sure everyone is on the same page and a process is repeatable... and document your solutions. 8 Don't just focus internally – too many companies decide they must get their own house in order before they look at their suppliers; this is a mistake. Examine your supplier relationships and fix them if they are broken. 9 Review your progress constantly. Adopt the PDCA cycle – plan, do, check, act (or adapt). 10 Measure both key performance indicators and the practices (tools and behaviours) that you put in place and ensure they are sustainable. 11 Manage people's expectations. If they anticipate too much they will be disappointed; too little and they won't achieve enough. 12 Communicate progress constantly in every way possible – through andon boards, meetings, newsletters, and so on.